South Arkansas College and Hocking (Ohio) College both made history by reaching the NJCAA Division II Tournament for the first time.
On Monday, one of them will add to their legacy by picking up their first win in the tournament.
The Stars (21-8), who are the No. 17 seed, square off with the Hawks (23-6), who are the No. 16 seed, in the first round of the NJCAA Division II Tournament at 11 a.m. at the Mary Miller Center in Danville, Ill.
The winner will advance to face No. 1 seed Davidson-Davie (N.C.) Community College on Tuesday, while the loser will play a consolation game on Wednesday morning.
Both schools have lethal offenses that average just over 89 points per game and can go deep into their benches.
Hocking is led by sophomore Dennis Asoro, who averages 15.5 points and eight rebounds per game.
Treshawn Cody, a freshman, is also in double figures at 14 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.
Sophomore Anthony Millner is next at 13.4 points and 4.4 rebounds. He also averages 2.7 assists per game and is connecting on 39% of his 3-point shots. He was even better from downtown in conference games, knocking down 37 of his 79 attempts to finish at 46.8%.
Allen Lattimore, also a sophomore, is the last Hocking player that averages in double figures, checking in at 11.9 points and 3.2 rebounds while shooting 34% on his 3-point attempts.
Hocking has five other players that average over four points per game.
The Hawks qualified for the tourney by winning the Great Lakes District A championship by topping Bay (Mich.) College 82-80 last Sunday.
Jaden Woods, a sophomore who had 20 points and seven rebounds for the Hawks, was named the tournament’s MVP.
Zion Reynolds, a freshman, had 13 points off the bench.
“They play hard,” SouthArk coach Cam Robinson said. “They’ve got a big 6-9 kid (Asoro) inside that’s a problem. They go about 10 deep, their coach really likes to sub. They’re really scrappy on the defensive end.”
Hocking ranks third in the country in offensive rebounds per game at 16.8, and Robinson said the Hawks can beat you in multiple ways.
“They’re big on offensive rebounding,” Robinson said. “Their guards crash the offensive glass. They’ll feed the big man inside, and they’ll get out and run in transition. The coach lets them play free. Even if you’re not a shooter, they’re going to shoot the ball, which makes it somewhat tough because if you’re scouting for a person not to be able to be a shooter, and he’s shooting it and making it, it throws you off. You’ve really got to be disciplined. They really like to drive to the basket. It’s their bread and butter. They play some physical defense.”
The Stars counter with sophomore guard Troy’reon Ramos, who was named to the All-Region 2 squad and averages 17.3 points per game along with 6.6 assists and 3.4 rebounds.
Sophomores Braedon Edison (15.2), Raheem Briggs (12.6), Jamarian Cato (12.2) and Damian Garcia (12.2) also average double figures with Edison leading the Stars in rebounding at seven per game.
SouthArk won the Central Plains District crown by knocking off St. Louis (Mo.) Community College 94-75 last Saturday in El Dorado’s Wildcat Arena.
Garcia had 22 points to lead the Stars.
Cato had a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds, as did Ramos with 16 points and 10 assists.
Edison had 13 points, five rebounds and five assists for SouthArk.
“They look extremely strong,” Hocking coach Ryan Miley said of the Stars. “They share the ball pretty well. The one thing I noticed is how structured they are and how well-coached they are. It looks like they get into their sets and into what they want to run every possession. I was pretty impressed by that.
A lot of junior colleges you’ll see guys getting up and down and let them play a little bit, but the structure is really what stood out to me.”
Miley said he is expecting Monday’s tilt to have plenty of offense.
“I think it’s going to be a high-scoring game,” Miley said. “I think both teams want to play like that. Once they get in the half court, SouthArk will pull it out and run their stuff, but it looks like they want to score in transition if possible or off their defense. We’re kind of the same way, so I do expect a high-scoring game.”
After Millner and Lattimore, the Hawks have several threats on the perimeter.
Freshman Elijah Hughes is at 37.1%, while fellow freshmen Marvin Good is connecting on 35% and Sohn McGee is at 33.3%. Reynolds is next at 31.6%
“They’re playing with confidence,” Robinson said. “All you have to give a player is confidence. Whether they feel like they can shoot or not, that’s a dangerous person because no matter what, they feel like they’re going to make it and keep shooting it.
“It makes it tough, but we have to believe in the principles of what we do as a defense. If they want to take them, we’re not going to go outside of what they do good. We’re going to play to their weakness.”
For the Hawks, it all starts with Asoro.
“We try to get it down low to him and try to play inside-out through him, get him going,” Miley said. “He’s a tough matchup to guard one on one. He’s about 6-8, 240. He’s getting interest from all different levels, so it kind of does start with him. After that, it’s pretty even-keeled with the rest of the guys, it’s pretty balanced. Whoever shows up that day is going to play more. We feed the hot hand.”
Hocking has a deep bench with 11 players having played in 25 or more games, and Miley said the substitutions come whenever necessary.
“It’s more flow of the game,” Miley said. “We’re more flying around in the half-court defense than full court. We’ll play some full court, but that’s not really our strength. It’s just getting guys to play as hard as they can on defense for three or four minutes and then going on to the next guy. We’ve got a lot of guys that are in that 6-4 to 6-6 range, really versatile defenders, long, athletic. I know they’re pretty balanced the same way we are. We’ve got 15 guys. On any different day, one of our guys could be the leading scorer. I see the same thing with them. They’ve got a lot of talent.”
With SouthArk set to play on the national stage, Robinson said he is eager to see what happens next week.
“We’re excited about it,” Robinson said. “I’m looking forward to getting to these games. It’s going to be a big deal. I’ve already had coaches hit me up from the time we won to the last couple of days saying they’re going to come up and watch our guys play. The opportunity is there. This is what we’ve been working toward since September. It’s here. We just have to embrace it, take it in and enjoy it, but look to win.”